Impulse control — the 6 keys to teaching dogs calm and polite behavior
hi welcome to take 5 with pet tutor I’m
Amanda and this is Jennifer and we’re
here to talk with Jennifer today she’s
written a blog and it’s about impulse
control that’s right and tell me a
little bit about what inspired you to
write about impulse control with animals
dogs well I think impulse control is one
of those concepts that people know very
little about and yet it’s so easy to
apply and it helps in so many different
places you know with our dog that I
thought you know I really had had the
urge to to write about it we have a Dane
who loves for us to throw the Kong to
him and but when we were getting ready
to throw it he was barking at us and
lunging and really not kind of coming
towards us a little bit and it was
intimidating and I really wanted him to
have offer some manners and a little bit
more self-control I assume how I
pictured it but and we’ve been working
on that and is that kind of what you
mean by impulse control yes so think
about dogs as two-year-old little people
yes you know how does a two-year-old
behave they when they want something
they want it right now and if they don’t
get it right now they’ll have a fit
about it now fortunately we grow out of
that and as we grow up we’ve learned
that patience and we have to wait a
little bit and we have to ask politely
so that but that has been a journey for
us to get to that point and the dogs are
very much the same way if they want
something they want it right now they
want to get out of the crate now they
want to get out of their car right no
they want the ball they want the food as
they get to all those things they’ve
learned that hey well that’s you know
that’s a great way to get to it the
problem is when they live in our
environment now they can push us down
they as you as you mentioned your dog
you know they can be barky and demanding
and create all it can create all sorts
of issues because they haven’t learned
patience and they haven’t learned how to
be polite and it’s up to us to teach
them it’s very very easy you know the
other thing about impulse control is
when we teach them to wait for our cue
before they go out of the crate or out
of the car or before they run after the
ball they also learn to pay more
attention to us if they learn to look at
us and wait for a signal we’re setting
up a relationship a communication
pattern here that helps in other areas
too so for all those reasons impulse
control the concepts of impulse control
is really really important okay so when
we were about to throw the ball if he
barked or lunged we just put it behind
our back and it disappeared and the game
kind of waited with yes yeah basically
if you keep in mind that dogs do what
works and you can just wait and pick the
behaviors you want to you want to reward
okay so anytime the dog has access to
what it wants whether it’s freedoms of
all the food you or whatever it is every
time that I can have access to that
whatever behavior got to that to that to
to what they wanted has been rewarded so
if you keep that in mind you can just
pick and choose which behavior you want
to reward let’s say instead of barking
and lunging and jumping you want your
dog to sit down you can simply have that
ball and as you see put it probably out
of sight of the dog and wait the dogs
not gonna bark forever or jump forever
lunch forever there’s a point where
they’re gonna go ah and they made it
mean sit down okay that’s when you pour
your ball out and that’s the reward with
the behavior that you want to reward and
she said like that that’s how they can
get the ball and the same applies to
crate instead of you know if you open
the crate when the dog is barking and
hauling and doing all those behaviors
and you open the crate and the dog just
pushes its way out of the crate you have
just rewarded that behavior so instead
you can just stand there wait for the
dog to calm down and eventually sit if
that’s your criteria then you open the
door and if when you
then the door the dog tries to get out
you close the door you wait again and
you wait for the sit and you just keep
playing that little game and the dogs
are very very good and very quick at
learning what works and they will figure
out that to get out of the crate they
have to sit down okay all right any
other tips or when you grab the leash
that’s a typical when you take the leash
out you want to go for out for a walk
and now the dog is jumping all over the
place and barking and all excited
well again you don’t if you put that
leash on your dog while he’s doing all
of that that’s the behavior rewarding so
instead you can just stand there and
wait and develop your own patience with
this okay and wait for the dog to settle
down and you can ask for a sit then put
the leash if the dog gets out of
position and starts jumping and whining
and everything you just put the leash
back in the closet wait a few seconds
wait for everything to calm down grab
the leash on again and try again and you
just keep repeating that until the dog
is consistent with sitting down and
waiting for you to put the leash on so
really it is a place to everything thank
you very tips so what are we going to
talk about next your next vlog is oh yes
we’re gonna talk about shot colors okay
all right I look forward to it sort of
okay thank you so much see you next time
with take five and pet – bye bye
